Health Economics of Well-being and Well-becoming across the Life-course

Abstract

Abstract Health economics of prevention is fundamental to improving our health and well-being. In this book we advocate the concept of ‘well-becoming’. This is how we create life-course health and well-being opportunity architecture in society. Fifty percent of mental health problems emerge before the age of fourteen years and 75 per cent by age twenty-four. Likewise, the lifestyle choices we make in our fifties determine how we age. In this book, we ask the reader to think about the life-course and where we should be investing in cost-effective interventions to support the prevention of chronic disease, disability, and premature death. Life expectancy in the United Kingdom has fallen due to over a decade of austerity prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Brexit and the war in Ukraine have contributed to the current cost of living crisis, adversely affecting the worst off in society. In this book we draw on the work of Professor Sir Michael Marmot on the widening inequalities in healthy life expectancy. This is set to persist in an increasingly unequal society. The economic and health economics evidence we present, drawing on systematic review evidence where possible, provokes discussion of the tension between prevention and cure in our health and social care systems. We introduce our new infographic called the ‘Well-being and well-becoming wheel’. We set out an agenda for health economics research and policy support in the field of public health and prevention economics relating to well-being and well-becoming. We close the book with consideration of global priorities for health economics research with an increased emphasis on sustainability and climate change as a fundamental basis for future human well-being and well-becoming. We hope this book will be of interest to health economists working in public health and prevention, social care economics, public health and local authority decision-makers, and students in health economics, public health, public policy, and medicine.